Virtual Business in a Box

Archive for the ‘Women in Business’ Category

Now What?

You are just about to start out in business – you have your business idea, you have your funding, your business plan is written (and probably put on the shelf where it will remain gathering dust) and you are ready to start work. What comes next?

Are clients knocking down your door to use your services? How have you marketed yourself so that people 'out there' know about you? What do you actually want from your business?

Business Goals

Speaking with a number of people during the economic recession, many of them who are thinking about starting their own business want to do this for a number of reasons – better work/life balance (yeah, right – we all know about the long hours we have to put in as a new business owner to get the clients/money coming in!), can do what they are doing as an employee but for themselves, can do a better job than their current employer, blah, blah, blah…

What many don't think about is how they are going to measure the success of their business once they are up and running. What is it they actually want from their business? Having a good business idea and actually measuring the success of the business once it is up and running can be very different.

What is Success in Business?

Many people see success as the amount of money they can make, increased turnover, increased profits, increased workload…

For me, being successful in my business is all about my work/life balance. I first started Your Office Online in October 2006 – my reasons where that the employer I was then working for (the NHS) was restructuring and my post was being moved to the new Strategic Health Authority headquarters in Taunton, a 2 hour journey one way. Jobs in Cornwall and west Devon/Plymouth were scarce and as I had been working as a senior PA to a boss who was always out of the office I knew there was a gap in the market to help other business owners/business executives who were also out of the office on the road but who needed secretarial support. Having found myself another job, albeit on a 3 year contract, my business goals when I started were to grow my client base to such numbers that when my short -term contract expired, I would have enough clients to work in my business full time (September 2009 was the deadline). I was therefore working a full-time job and working in/on my own business.

As mentioned above, the hours I had to put in made me wonder whether I was actually doing the right thing. Work/life balance – what was that? I was up an hourly earlier to check emails before going to work, working a full day and them doing client work when I got home. Hubby wondered at times who I was.

Within 5 months of setting up Your Office Online, I was dropping my paid employment work hours from full to part-time hours as my client base grew and within 7 months I had given up the part-time employment. I did make a leap of faith though – I only had two clients when I decided to give up paid employment as I had decided I wasn't able to give either my employer or my business the attention they deserved and the business won out.

By the end of my first year in business, although not yet making a profit, I had achieve the majority of my goals written in my business plan. Success – I was running my own business!

So, What Now?

So, I was back to my first question, what now? I had achieved within the first year everything in my business plan which had been written for the first 3 years. Now what do I do? 

Well, I continued to work with my clients but up'd my level of service with them. If I couldn't get new clients, I looked at what I could offer my current clients to give better value for money and to add value to their businesses.

This worked – the clients I worked with at the very beginning are still with me today and I have helped them grow their businesses, with one telling me he has had a ten-fold increase in turnover in the last 2 years. I now more or less run his company on a day-to-day basis while he looks at the long term strategy and has time to take a holiday (what's one of those?).

Success Measured in Other Ways

Success for me has also meant being able to help other business owners grow their business (if that happens then my business automatically grows with them). It has also come from the recognition I get within the Virtual Assistant (VA) industry. I was the first VA in the UK to be VAcertified, I was nominated by other VAs on the VANA forum for the VAccolade of the Week in August 2009, and I have many aspiring VAs ring and email to ask me how they can set up their business (one reason why Virtual Business in a Box was produced).

I have also just discovered that I have been shortlisted for this year's final at the Remote Employment PCG Freelancer Award. Another feather in my cap and one which I hope will give potential clients the confidence to work with me and let me help them grow their business.

Testimonials from clients and their feedback on my work also gives me a sense of achievement. One client is currently growing a new arm to her business and will be splitting her time between the UK, Dubai and Brazil. Her current business will eventually be sold off and she tells me that as part of the selling process, she will be including details about how I have helped her grow her business, get better clientele, increase her turnover and cut down on the amount of hours she has to work. Success for all of us.

So, What is YOUR Recipe for Success?

Catherine Osborn measures her success in different ways. She defines it by saying "I measure my success on an ongoing basis by the amount of repeat business I get. There are individual achievements that stand out though and one was when the BBC published a press release of mine unchanged on its website." You can read the whole article here.

How do you measure your success in business? Answers on a postcard to… No seriously, comments would be useful to know how other businesses, or people setting up their own business, measure the success of their business.

(This article is also included on our sister site blog www.your-office-online.co.uk/blog)